Eggheads

Burnbrae Farms first got into egg farming in the 1940's, when Joe Hudson, who was just 13 years old at the time, brought home 50 chickens to establish a backyard flock. Today, Joe's daughter, Margaret Hudson, serves as President and CEO of Burnbrae, which has long-since outgrown the backyard, and become the largest egg producer in Canada.Margaret joins us to discuss how her and her family kept building on what Joe started, including turning a low value egg byproduct into a national brand, funding research behind one of Canada's early omega-3 products and even helping major retailers rethink how they manage the egg category.

It doesn't matter how hard-working you are as a farmer, if you don't have the right genetics in your flock, it's going to be difficult to have success in the egg game. But as the industry evolves, and the needs of consumers change, deciding which birds are the right fit for your farm has become much more complex. Neal Martin is the General Manager of US distribution at Hendrix Genetics. He joins us today for a bit of a history lesson of how the poultry genetics business has evolved — and consolidated — over the years, the incredibly complicated logistics of getting hens to layers when they need them, and all of the different attributes you can get chickens to express through selective breeding. 

Over the last few decades automation has completely changed the way eggs are processed. And with robots now assuming many of the jobs handled previously by humans, producers can now process eggs faster, and with a higher degree of accuracy than ever before. Bill Bretschneider is a product manager for MOBA, a company based in Barneveld in the Netherlands, and one of the world's biggest suppliers of egg grading, breaking, and sorting equipment. Today, Bill walks us through the innovation milestones of the past few decades, including the rollout of AI crack detection, and explains what more needs to happen before we see truly autonomous facilities. 

When Raechel Van Buskirk served up some creatively-flavored deviled eggs at her dive bar in Omaha, Nebraska, she had no idea that it would change her life. And what started as a way to drum up some business on Sunday mornings, would eventually lead to a chain of restaurants, national distribution and even an appearance on Shark Tank. Today, Raechel walks us through the whirlwind rise of her company, Deviled Egg Co., including the struggle of keeping a business going through Covid, the nerve-wracking preparation for her Shark Tank appearance, and how she's navigated the volatility in egg prices. 

In an industry where it would be easy to treat an egg as just an egg, one brand has built its entire identity on finding the next big thing. Jasen Urena is the Executive Vice President of NestFresh, a company that's been an early adopter of cage-free, free-range, pasture-raised, non-GMO, and regenerative organic egg production, and recently became the first company in the US to put a humanely hatched egg on grocery store shelves. Today, Jasen walks us through their history of innovation, how NestFresh has built long-term partnerships with over 300 independent family farms, and what it actually takes to be a first mover in the egg industry.